A Next-Generation Feminist Agenda

As women, girls, and activists recently gathered virtually and in person for the UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum in Paris to put forth recommendations and financial commitments toward achieving gender equality, we were reminded of the original World Conference in Beijing 26 years ago where women from all over the world convened and declared that, in the words of then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Women’s rights are human rights.” This moment was critical for charting a path toward greater gender equality. And while women and girls around the world have come a long way since Beijing, we also know that we still have a very long way to go, particularly for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) women, trans and gender-nonconforming women, and women with disabilities.

Data released over the past two years reveals alarming statistics. Some 640 million women have experienced physical and sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Approximately 190 million women who wanted to avoid pregnancy were not able to use any contraceptive method. About 35 million women in low- and middle-income countries have abortions in unsafe conditions each year. Meanwhile, women continue to do three times the amount of unpaid care work compared to men. The gender gap in labor force participation has not shifted in 30 years. And World Economic Forum data indicates that at this rate it will take us over a century — 136.6 years to be exact — before women achieve pay equity or leadership equity with men.

While these statistics are already grim, COVID-19 has exacerbated global inequality further. It is estimated that 47 million women will fall into extreme poverty due to COVID. And it is despicable that lawmakers around the world have capitalized on lockdowns to weaken women’s rights — especially since the crisis proved devastating to women’s role in the economy, to their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and to gender-based violence (GBV) rates. In the U.S., at least 11 states have sought to limit access to abortion during the pandemic, while Turkey announced its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention (formally known as the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence), with others, such as Poland and Hungary, threatening to follow suit. In some countries, for example in Mexico, domestic violence alone has increased by as much as 53% as a result of lockdowns.

As women who have fought our entire lives for gender equality, we believe that seeing these statistics calls for introspection and reflection on what the next 26 years may look like — how do we break the cycle and take a leap forward? The Beijing Conference was a turning point for women’s rights, establishing a progressive blueprint for gender equality globally that was unanimously adopted by 189 governments. The Generation Equality Forum is on track to be a similar turning point, with more than $40 billion pledged toward gender equality. This time, we saw governments, private sector actors, philanthropies, and others also unite and adopt feminist principles, including the wisdom and experience of feminists in the Global South, and pledge to integrate these principles into the way they do their work. This will be critical for moving from small-scale movements to the large-scale transformation required in our economies and societies.

But the hard work starts now. To make sure that pledges at global events actually transform women’s and girls’ lives around the world, we need to look beyond the event to what the next decade may look like.

Here is what we believe is needed to turn words into long-term actions and sustainable results:

• Intersectionality. We cannot condense the experiences of Black women, Indigenous women, and other women of color into slogans such as “Women’s rights are human rights.” We have to recognize how misogyny, patriarchy, and white supremacy come together to impact the lives of women and girls. Our efforts must acknowledge the multiple intersecting forms of discrimination that BIPOC women face. We have to keep asking who is at the table and, as Vice President Kamala Harris stated in her opening remarks at the forum, “recognize who is not in the room and invite them in.” We also have to reflect on the invisibility of disability rights activists, even within the Generation Equality Forum, and learn how to listen more attentively to the needs of women’s rights disability activists and ensure they are included in creating policy priorities.
• Partnerships. We cannot fragment and silo SRHR and gender-based violence issues from issues of economic justice and political power and leadership. We have to recognize that women and girls do not live single-issue lives and so we must address their problems holistically. More importantly, political power and leadership matter when it comes to addressing SRHR and GBV. It is critical that women occupy leadership roles and that we drive a feminist leadership agenda across multiple spaces and forums. Partnerships within and outside of feminist movements are crucial in this effort. As feminists, we need to occupy corridors of power and assume leadership of institutions across a range of sectors including government, multinational organizations, private sector companies, and foundations. We cannot only focus on leadership within feminist movements or civil society, and we need to then build bridges across these institutions and feminist movements — to build a more feminist world.
• Resources. Real investment in women's leadership, power, and agency is critical to gender equality and will require much more creativity in how we think about resourcing so that it is inherently feminist and sustainable. Women’s funds, such as the Black Feminist Fund and Equality Fund, help accomplish this, taking a systemic and holistic approach to address power imbalances and foster long-term, sustainable funding. The structural problems of gender inequality require this whole-of-society approach rather than one dependent on private foundations or high-net-worth individuals. We have to bring together foundations with international organizations, the impact investing community, and government resources to get the scale of funding we need. For example, progressive governments that have adopted feminist foreign policies and are directing official developmental assistance resources toward gender equality should partner with foundations and the private sector to support feminist movements by providing consistent funding and other resources. This support can help generate sustainable change in a way that is difficult to achieve through just one party acting alone.
• Accountability. Resources and bold commitments fall flat without accountability. Youth activists involved in the forum reminded us that they are watching and will be holding leaders accountable to their commitments. We need to welcome this and create a more robust mutual accountability framework. The Generation Equality Forum, for example, took such a step by putting forth six Action Coalition blueprints for the most catalytic actions that could be undertaken to accelerate women’s rights, detailing key targets, possible commitments, and a five-year accountability framework.

While these principles outline a foundation for change, they must be met with immediate action by organizations and governments around the world to advance gender equality. What we refuse to become as a result of the last year is defeated or complacent. This is the time to reemerge with new vigor, unite, and take action to ensure a feminist future.